One of the strongests lessons that I took away from my time at SMU is that acting lessons will jump out and surprise you from the most unlikely places.

I’m 32 years old and yesterday I got on the back of a horse, at least by myself, for the first time in my life. My wife’s uncle Mike has a farm here in Middle Tennessee where he keeps two horses, Hershey and Fancy. I had the honor of sharing some time with Hershey. Mike gave me a few pointers, put the reigns in my hand and let me walk him around the property. I was warned the Hershey hadn’t really been ridden in several months, so there was the possibility that he would be a bit stubborn. He also hadn’t been away from Fancy in quite some time. Yet another addition to the possibility of stubborness.

Here’s where the acting lesson comes in. When it comes to horses, you don’t steer them as much as you come to a consensus with them as to where you’re going to go. That means that there is a communication that goes on between horse and rider. At the same time I was getting accustomed to being on horseback, Hershey was getting use to having someone on his back again and learning what I meant when I gave him commands with the reigns. I became almost instantly aware of this communication that was going on. Early in the ride, there were times when I was trying to get Hershey to slow down a little and he would come to a halt almost immediately. Likewise, there were some times when I would pull a little too hard trying to get him to go to the right or left and he would come to a halt. What was amazing was that we both learned each other’s tendencies at almost the exact same time and it just clicked.

I quickly realized that in order for the ride to be a successful one, I had to listen to Hershey as much as he was listening to me. I’m hoping you see the analogy here. In order for your scene or the entire play to be successful, you have to listen to your fellow actors and scene partners as much as they (hopefully) are listening to you.

Acting is reacting. If you are not listening to your fellow actors–and not just with your ears–there is no way you can react realistically in the moment.

I’m no horseman, but I certainly will spend a bit more time on the farm with Hershey. It’s impossible to ride a horse and not be totally open and listening to him!

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 30th, 2006 at 8:54 am and is filed under Acting Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.